Competitive Balance Limits (a salary cap replacement)

A few years ago, I decided to write down some self-imposed controls that I would abide by in lieu of a salary cap in my Madden 2004. Specifically, I wanted to limit how many free agents I would acquire during a given season since I did not want to have a cap amount that would compromise my ability to keep my team intact in Years 5-7 and later of a franchise cycle.

Here is what I came up with (revised December 2010):

Competitive Balance Limits (non-cap rules for Madden 2004) 12.4.10

SECTION 1

A) The non-capped team must play with weighted slider settings to ensure a reasonable competitive level. Once these settings are concretized (by the first regular season game of the first season, those sliders will remain at those settings for at least the full first season including playoffs). These sliders will be revisited at the conclusion of every year.

SECTION 2

A) The non-capped team will be limited to a total of five (5) free agent signings from other teams during the off-season free agent period.

B) No free agent can be signed whose rating falls in the top five of all rated free agents or is the top-rated in a given position for that particular FA pool. If the non-capped team has the two highest-paid players in the league at that point of the off-season, this number of signees from other teams will be reduced to three (3). None of those free agents in the latter scenario can play the positions of either of the two highest-paid players.

SECTION 3

A) The CBL is in effect in consecutive five-year cycles. The rules in Section Two apply for the first four years of each CBL cycle. The fifth year of this cycle will be exempted from point two, allowing the non-capped team to sign up to ten (10) free agents at any position in that exempted year's off-season, regardless of salary considerations or rating. The subsequent year will restart another four years of a new CBL cycle where point two will be in force.

SECTION 4

A) FA signings during the season are limited to one (1) player other than replacements for players put on IR. Regarding the CBL cycle, these are in addition to the off-season signings dealt with in points 1-3. These in-season signees can be of any rating.

SECTION 5

A) The non-capped team will be able to maintain a payroll with no fixed limit to maintain its current roster. This includes the right to re-sign all of its free agents every year regardless of the stipulations of points one through three. Those free agents fall outside of the intended effects of the CBL.

SECTION 6

A) The following breakdown identifies the years in each CBL franchise cycle:

CBL CYCLE 1: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 – 2007 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 2: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 – 2012 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 3: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 – 2017 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 4: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 – 2022 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 5: 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026 – 2027 is exempted

CBL CYCLE 6: 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031 – 2032 is exempted


Try these rules out if you are using Madden 2004 or earlier for franchises in a non-capped enviroment. ;)

Russ